Family Obligations
by Rain621
Summary: A short oneshot based around Kai and his views on the Bladebreakers, as well as the relationship he has with his grandfather, Voltaire. Please R & R!


**A very short, quite random oneshot (my first one!) about Kai. It's set sometime after the third season… I think… I wasn't really thinking about the timescale when I wrote it, but I mentioned Daichi, so take what you want from it. Strangely enough, this was originally meant to be a Digimon oneshot (0_o) and then I started thinking about Max – my parents are divorced, although they only live an hour away from each other, so I can sort of ****emphasise**** with poor Maxie. And somehow… from there it turned into a story about Kai :S Oh well…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade – I am far too poor.**

Family Obligations

Lying on the slanted tiles of the roof with his hands folded behind his head, Kai stared up at the falling snow as if daring any of it to land on him. Despite the winter cold and the snow falling all around him, the rooftop was a place Kai frequented regularly; it was the place where he could be alone with his thoughts, without Max and Daichi yelling as they played video games or Ray and Kenny animatedly talking about beyblade strategies. On the roof, Hiro couldn't moan at him for not being warm enough towards his team, and he didn't have to listen to Tyson and Hillary's constant bickering; he was alone with his thoughts, and that was how he liked it.

The topic monopolizing his mind that evening was one of the questions an interviewer had asked them that day,

_Do you spend much time with your families?_

At the time, Kai had snorted and turned away, only half listening as the other members of his team talked about their families and how much they enjoyed being with them. But now, away from the bustle of being a world champion blader, Kai thought more deeply into that question, playing it over in his mind, unable to shift the nagging feeling it had given him. He knew why it was bugging him, which was just more infuriating. For as long as he could remember, the same curiosity popped into his head whenever anyone mentioned the topic of "family": Kai sometimes wondered what it was really like to have family. He alone, out of all of the Bladebreakers, had no-one with whom he shared that sort of bond. Except his grandfather, at a pinch; but Kei didn't see him as family. The Blitzkreig Boys had been close friends when they were all living in Biovolt Abbey, but they'd become distant in the years since Kai had left, and the closeness between them had waned.

That left the rest of the Bladebreakers. Kai would be lying to himself if he didn't admit that they were the people closest to him. Yes, they regularly annoyed him, and they did stupid things and tried to force their optimism and teamwork-ideals onto him; but they were honest and sincere and he knew he could trust them.

It was quite tragic actually; in that interview it had come to light that Tyson and Max were the only ones who weren't orphans, and even then Tyson had lost his mother to a car accident and Max's parents were divorced, constantly playing an angry tennis match where he was the unhappy ball. Ray had been a surprise; they'd all known that Daichi had lost both his parents, and it was common knowledge that Kai's only family was Voltaire, who was currently in prison where he belonged. Kai found himself wondering why he had never questioned Ray's closeness to Lee. The two of them were like brothers. Apparently that was because they had been raised like brothers; when Ray's parents had died, Lee's family had taken him in. When, in the past, Ray had said the White Tigers were like family to him, he'd meant it – he had no other relatives, no-one else with whom to share this familial bond.

Which led Kai onto the question that bugged him most; how could they all be so cheerful? No-one on their team had a proper, happy family. Except Kenny, if you counted him; his parent's ran a bakery and had always given him their support. Kai didn't know about Hillary, and frankly didn't want to. Tyson only had his father, brother and grandfather, two of whom were often traveling and he rarely saw. Daichi had been traveling on his own for years, if his stories were to be believed. Max was shipped to and from America and Japan like a yo-yo, pressured to try and choose between his parents. The closest thing Ray had to family where the teammates he abandoned when he began traveling. Kai's only living family was in a Russian prison on multiple charges including, and not limited to, child abuse.

But despite that, when they'd all sat down for dinner, Ray had commented about how they were like a family, all eating together. Maybe that was why they could be so cheerful; because they all tried to create imaginary family bonds everywhere they looked. Before he met them, Kai would have laughed at this idea. When he'd met the other members of his team he'd thought they were all idiots; too easy to please and too desperate to get on with others. But now, after all this time together with them, Kai was beginning to understand it. Now he could see why the others were happy to consider the team as their family. Because, at the end of the day, the other members of the Bladebreakers were the people closest to him, more so that Tala and the Blitzkreig Boys could ever be again, and he considered them the closest thing to family he'd ever have.

So in answer to that obnoxious interviewers question, _Do you spend much time with your families?_ Kai would have to answer;

Yes. He spent all his time with his family, as annoying as they could be. Whatever happened he knew they wouldn't give up on him. Ray's voice of considerate reason would always be guarding him against bad decisions, Max's trusting nature and desire to do his best for the team would always bring him hope, Daichi's childish determination to become stronger would remind him of why he trained so hard in the first place and Tyson… Tyson would forever be a constant headache. He would also always be depended on to put his heart into a beybattle and never to give up, he would always be Kai's ultimate rival.

Did Kai have a family? People would always look at Voltaire and pityingly say that yes, he did have family, he had a grandfather he despised. Kai looked at those people with scorn, because they would never be able to understand what made the Bladebreakers the strongest bladders in the world. It wasn't tactics, it wasn't advanced blade technology, and it wasn't special training. It was, as cheesy as it sounds, heart. The Bladebreakers, from happy-go-lucky Max to surly Kai, with everyone else in between, had each other to depend on, and they all shared a love of the sport that had brought them together and made them a family.

A snowflake finally landed on Kai's nose as the wind changed and the flurry got heavier. Smirking, the captain of the Bladebreakers moved to the edge of the roof and, with the grace of a cat, swung himself off of the roof and through the open window into the room he shared with Ray. It was time to check on his team.

Voila! I personally don't think it's very good :S I know nothing about Ray's family so I just… kind of… made him an orphan… .

**What do you think? My first ever oneshot – please R & R! XD**


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